This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

'Absolute chaos' as truck drives into Nice crowd, killing dozens

The truck, which an official said was loaded with arms and explosives, rammed into a crowd of revelers watching fireworks on Bastille Day. The driver was shot dead by police.

Video taken from the scene shows panic and people sprinting away after a delivery truck drove into a crowd of revellers celebrating Bastille Day, killing more than 80. ()

By William BraniginSarah KaplanThe Washington Post

Thu., July 14, 2016

A truck rammed into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice on Thursday night, killing at least 80 people in an apparent terrorist attack as the driver also opened fire on revelers, French officials said.

The truck struck the crowd on the Promenade des Anglais, a seaside walk in the centre of the city in southern France, authorities said. The driver fired on the crowd before being shot to death by police, officials said.

French President Francois Hollande says “the terrorist character” of the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice cannot be denied.

Hollande in his address to the nation said that the people, including some children, were killed when the truck drove through the crowds who had just watched a fireworks display on seafront in the city.

The French interior minister shortly after said 80 people were killed in the attack in Nice, with 18 others critically injured.

Article Continued Below

Just hours after announcing in the traditional Bastille Day interview that the state of emergency, in place since November attacks that killed 130 in Paris, was to be removed, Hollande said it must be extended for three months. That decision will need parliamentary approval.

Police officers, firefighters and rescue workers are seen at the site of an attack on the Promenade des Anglais. The truck's driver was shot by police. (VALERY HACHE / AFP/Getty Images)

Police officers stand near a van, its windscreen riddled with bullets, that ploughed into a crowd leaving a fireworks display in the French Riviera town of Nice. (VALERY HACHE / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

French soldiers advance on the street after at least 30 people were killed in Nice, France. (ERIC GAILLARD / REUTERS)

People cross the street with their hands on their heads as a French soldier secures the area after a truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd. (JEAN-PIERRE AMET / REUTERS)

He also said other measures will be put in place to counter the threat.

Christian Estrosi, a former mayor of Nice and currently president of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, said in one of a series of Twitter messages that the truck was carrying arms and explosives when it struck the crowd at about 10:30 p.m. local time. Estrosi Estrosi told BFM TV that “the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him.”

He added that the driver's behaviour appeared to be “completely premeditated.”

There was no immediate information on the identity of the driver or what motivated his action.

“The identification of the criminal is in progress,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, refusing to confirm reports that an ID card was found after police shot the truck driver dead.

“We are in a war with terrorists who want to strike us at any price and in a very violent way,” the minister said.

Local authorities were treating the incident as a terrorist attack and urging people to stay home, the French television channel BFM TV reported. It occurred as a large crowd was watching a fireworks display celebrating the French national holiday.

The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for “murder, attempted murder in an organized group linked to a terrorist enterprise.”

He says Canada’s sympathy is with the victims, and he expressed Canadians’ solidarity with the French people.

In Washington, President Barack Obama released a statement Thursday night condemning “what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack in Nice, France.” He said he has directed his team to get in touch with French officials to assist with the investigation into the attack.

“We stand in solidarity and partnership with France, our oldest ally, as they respond to and recover from this attack,” the statement said.

CNN quoted an American witness as saying he saw one person in the large white truck and heard gunfire, although it was not clear whether it came from the driver or was being fired at the vehicle.

The witness said the driver accelerated as he was mowing people down.

The Associated Press quoted Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native, as saying that after slamming into the crowd, the truck driver emerged with a gun and started shooting.

“There was carnage on the road,” Bouhlel said. “Bodies everywhere.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bloodshed, although jihadist networks were celebrating it on social media.

Fourth-year Ryerson student Andrea Vacl was celebrating Bastille Day near Promenade des Anglais when the “sudden panic” filled the air.

“I was just leaving the firework show when I saw people suddenly sprinting,” the Canadian, who is backpacking in Europe this summer, said. “I heard screams . . . and I just saw a mass of people sprinting past me, so I started sprinting as well.”

France was rocked by a devastating terrorist attack in November, when heavily armed suicide bombers killed 130 people in several places around Paris. Daesh, also known as ISIL or ISIS, claimed responsibility for that attack, the worst bloodshed on French soil since World War II.

In March, Daesh attackers killed 32 people in suicide bombings at the Brussels airport and a metro station.

News footage from the scene of the Nice incident showed the truck's windshield riddled with bullet holes.

Analysts noted that Daesh has called on its followers to kill civilians in Western countries by any means possible.

Daesh has previously called for attacks using vehicles, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist statements. It said supporters of the radical Islamist organization were sharing the news of the Nice attack and “celebrating the massacre.”

Pro-Daesh forums posted old messages in which the terrorist group urged followers to carry out lone-wolf attacks against France.

Police said people in the vicinity should stay home and follow instructions from authorities.

Witnesses said bodies of victims were strewn over the road for more than a mile. Police urged people not to spread rumours or broadcast shocking videos of the scene.

The Interior Ministry denied reports of a hostage-taking at a hotel and restaurant in Nice.

Despite the admonitions from French police, graphic video and photographs flooded social media. In some, bodies could be seen lying on the boulevard where the truck plowed into the crowd. Revelers ran away from the scene while sirens blared.

A reporter for Agence France-Presse called it “absolute chaos.”

“We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around,” he said.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump quickly took to Twitter, writing: “Another horrific attack, this time in Nice, France. Many dead and injured. When will we learn? It is only getting worse.”

In a subsequent tweet, Trump said he was postponing a news conference scheduled for Friday “concerning my Vice Presidential announcement.”

Within half an hour of initial reports of the incident, Facebook had activated its “safety check” feature for people in Nice. On Twitter, others used the hashtag #PortesOuvertesNice (“OpenDoorsNice”) to find and offer refuge to those who needed a place to stay.

In a tweet, the city of Nice urged people to seek shelter that way, and the hashtag was soon trending globally.

Meanwhile, taxis in the city were providing free rides to people seeking to leave the scene.

The attack came on one of France's most treasured holidays, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. In Paris, the occasion is marked by a military parade down the Champs-Elysées, the oldest and largest regularly scheduled military parade in Europe.

On Nice's Promenade des Anglais, which skirts the Mediterranean coast where thousands of revelers had gathered to watch a fireworks display, music mixed with the sounds of laughter and the crackle of fireworks for most of the night.

Then gunshots were fired into the crowd.

Maryam Violet, an Iranian journalist visiting Nice on vacation, told the Guardian that she saw the truck running into people as they left the fireworks show.

“I saw that suddenly people were fleeing and shouting,” she said, speaking by phone from Nice. “People were shouting, 'It's a terrorist attack! It's a terrorist attack!' It was clear that the driver was doing it deliberately.”

“I was walking for nearly a mile, and there were dead bodies all over the place,” she continued. “I think over 30 dead bodies are on the ground and lots of people are injured.”

Violet said she saw bodies covered in blue sheets and families mourning loved ones — two sisters and a brother from Poland who had lost two siblings; a family whose mother had died. She guessed that the family was Muslim, because some members were wearing head scarves.

“In Arabic, they were saying she's a martyr,” Violet said.

“People were celebrating” before the incident, she said. “And it was so peaceful. It was a festivity vibe. It was right after the fireworks that the truck came and ran over people.”

Zeynep Akar told CNN that the truck drove into crowds right outside her home.

“I suddenly heard the crash and people shouting,” she said. “When I went to the balcony, there were so many people on the ground.”

When she heard the crack of gunfire, she hurried back inside her house and turned off the lights. “I didn't know what was going on,” she said.

As everyone who could sought shelter, only emergency responders and relatives of those killed remained at the scene.

Photos showed horror-struck mourners crouched over blanket-covered bodies. A Reuters photographer captured a small figure covered in a foil sheet; a child's doll lay next to the body.

Jimmy Ghazal, 39, a Lebanese man visiting Nice with his family, told ABC News that he had been watching the fireworks with thousands of other people when he heard the crack of gunshots.

“A big truck” plowed through security barriers that had been set up for the day's festivities, he said, and “everyone started running.”

As they fled, Ghazal tried to comfort his children.

“The kids thought it was part of the fireworks,” he said. “We just told them it was part of the fireworks.”

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

France was rocked by a devastating terrorist attack in November, when heavily armed suicide bombers killed 130 people in several places around Paris. Daesh, also known as ISIL or ISIS, claimed responsibility for that attack, the worst bloodshed on French soil since World War II.

In March, Daesh attackers killed 32 people in suicide bombings at the Brussels airport and a metro station.

News footage from the scene of the Nice incident showed the truck's windshield riddled with bullet holes.

Analysts noted that Daesh has called on its followers to kill civilians in Western countries by any means possible.

Daesh has previously called for attacks using vehicles, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist statements. It said supporters of the radical Islamist organization were sharing the news of the Nice attack and “celebrating the massacre.”

Pro-Daesh forums posted old messages in which the terrorist group urged followers to carry out lone-wolf attacks against France.

Police said people in the vicinity should stay home and follow instructions from authorities.

Witnesses said bodies of victims were strewn over the road for more than a mile. Police urged people not to spread rumours or broadcast shocking videos of the scene.

The Interior Ministry denied reports of a hostage-taking at a hotel and restaurant in Nice.

Despite the admonitions from French police, graphic video and photographs flooded social media. In some, bodies could be seen lying on the boulevard where the truck plowed into the crowd. Revelers ran away from the scene while sirens blared.

A reporter for Agence France-Presse called it “absolute chaos.”

“We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around,” he said.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump quickly took to Twitter, writing: “Another horrific attack, this time in Nice, France. Many dead and injured. When will we learn? It is only getting worse.”

In a subsequent tweet, Trump said he was postponing a news conference scheduled for Friday “concerning my Vice Presidential announcement.”

Within half an hour of initial reports of the incident, Facebook had activated its “safety check” feature for people in Nice. On Twitter, others used the hashtag #PortesOuvertesNice (“OpenDoorsNice”) to find and offer refuge to those who needed a place to stay.

In a tweet, the city of Nice urged people to seek shelter that way, and the hashtag was soon trending globally.

Meanwhile, taxis in the city were providing free rides to people seeking to leave the scene.

The attack came on one of France's most treasured holidays, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. In Paris, the occasion is marked by a military parade down the Champs-Elysées, the oldest and largest regularly scheduled military parade in Europe.

On Nice's Promenade des Anglais, which skirts the Mediterranean coast where thousands of revelers had gathered to watch a fireworks display, music mixed with the sounds of laughter and the crackle of fireworks for most of the night.

Then gunshots were fired into the crowd.

Maryam Violet, an Iranian journalist visiting Nice on vacation, told the Guardian that she saw the truck running into people as they left the fireworks show.

“I saw that suddenly people were fleeing and shouting,” she said, speaking by phone from Nice. “People were shouting, 'It's a terrorist attack! It's a terrorist attack!' It was clear that the driver was doing it deliberately.”

“I was walking for nearly a mile, and there were dead bodies all over the place,” she continued. “I think over 30 dead bodies are on the ground and lots of people are injured.”

Violet said she saw bodies covered in blue sheets and families mourning loved ones — two sisters and a brother from Poland who had lost two siblings; a family whose mother had died. She guessed that the family was Muslim, because some members were wearing head scarves.

“In Arabic, they were saying she's a martyr,” Violet said.

“People were celebrating” before the incident, she said. “And it was so peaceful. It was a festivity vibe. It was right after the fireworks that the truck came and ran over people.”

Zeynep Akar told CNN that the truck drove into crowds right outside her home.

“I suddenly heard the crash and people shouting,” she said. “When I went to the balcony, there were so many people on the ground.”

When she heard the crack of gunfire, she hurried back inside her house and turned off the lights. “I didn't know what was going on,” she said.

As everyone who could sought shelter, only emergency responders and relatives of those killed remained at the scene.

Photos showed horror-struck mourners crouched over blanket-covered bodies. A Reuters photographer captured a small figure covered in a foil sheet; a child's doll lay next to the body.

Jimmy Ghazal, 39, a Lebanese man visiting Nice with his family, told ABC News that he had been watching the fireworks with thousands of other people when he heard the crack of gunshots.

“A big truck” plowed through security barriers that had been set up for the day's festivities, he said, and “everyone started running.”

As they fled, Ghazal tried to comfort his children.

“The kids thought it was part of the fireworks,” he said. “We just told them it was part of the fireworks.”

With files from The Associated Press

"},{"type":"related_topics","tags":["france"]},{"type":"articleRelated","interstitial":true,"display":"small-only","articleContinued":false},{"type":"newsletterbox"},{"type":"text","text":""}],"keywords":["oc:entities/country/f/r/a/france","oc:entities/city/p/a/r/paris","oc:entities/city/n/i/c/nice","oc:entities/position/d/r/i/driver","oc:socialtag/p/r/e/prefectures_in_france","oc:socialtag/n/i/c/nice","oc:socialtag/f/r/e/french_culture","ng:n/i/c/nice","ng:b/a/s/bastille_day","ng:f/r/a/france"],"promo":[],"sponsorname":"","mobileheadline":"","loaded":true,"comscore":"pageview_candidate","seopublisheddate":"2016-07-14","seomodifieddate":"2016-07-14","showBottom":true}],["weather:",{"cityId":"CAON0696","name":"Toronto","date":"2017-08-17T21:00:00-0400","latitude":"43.667000000000002","longitude":"-79.406999999999996","almanach":{"normalLow":"14","normalHigh":"26"},"current":{"date":"2017-08-17T21:00:00-0400","icon":"rn","forecast":"Rain showers","temperature":"20","feelsLike":"20","wind":"E 22","relativeHumidity":"20"},"shortTerm":[{"date":"2017-08-18T06:00:00-0400","name":"Tonight","icon":"an","forecast":"Isolated showers","temperature":"20"},{"date":"2017-08-18T12:00:00-0400","name":"Friday morning","icon":"h","forecast":"Cloudy periods","temperature":"22"},{"date":"2017-08-18T18:00:00-0400","name":"Friday afternoon","icon":"b","forecast":"Variable cloudiness","temperature":"26"},{"date":"2017-08-19T00:00:00-0400","name":"Friday evening","icon":"bn","forecast":"Variable cloudiness","temperature":"22"}],"longTerm":[{"date":"2017-08-18T12:00:00-0400","name":"Friday","icon":"b","forecast":"Variable cloudiness","highTemp":"26","lowTemp":"19","pop":"30"},{"date":"2017-08-19T12:00:00-0400","name":"Saturday","icon":"b","forecast":"Variable cloudiness","highTemp":"25","lowTemp":"17","pop":"30"},{"date":"2017-08-20T12:00:00-0400","name":"Sunday","icon":"h","forecast":"Sunny with cloudy periods","highTemp":"27","lowTemp":"18","pop":"20"},{"date":"2017-08-21T12:00:00-0400","name":"Monday","icon":"c","forecast":"Sunny","highTemp":"30","lowTemp":"21","pop":"10"}]}],["navNews:",{"item":{"abstract":"This year’s CNE is hosting an East Coast Kitchen Party complete with Halifax donairs, oyster shucking and even shrimp corn dogs.","headline":"A taste of the East Coast hits Toronto at this year’s CNE","lastmodifiedepoch":"1502905153082","lastmodified":"Aug 16 2017","image":{"alt":"Star reporter Azzura Lalani checked out some of the East Coast delights on offer at this year's CNE, which kicks off Friday. The event will be held for the first time on Saturday and Sunday.\n","url":"/content/dam/thestar/life/2017/08/16/a-taste-of-the-east-coast-hits-toronto-at-this-years-cne/cne-main-art-for-web.jpg"},"publishdate":"Aug 16 2017","type":"Story","url":"/life/2017/08/16/a-taste-of-the-east-coast-hits-toronto-at-this-years-cne.html","publishedepoch":"1502877600000","breadcrumbs":[{"label":"Life","relurl":"/life","url":"https://www.thestar.com/life.html"}]}}],["hottopics:",{"section":"Menu Items","title":"Menu Items","breadcrumbs":[{"url":"https://www.thestar.com/content/TheStarBeta/navigation/items.html","label":"Menu Items","relurl":"/content/TheStarBeta/navigation/items"}],"nextsection":"/content/TheStarBeta/navigation/items","prevsection":"/content/TheStarBeta/navigation/items","seoHead":"","seoDescription":"","seoKeywords":"","canonicalUrl":"https://www.thestar.com/navigation/items.html","seoRobots":"","promo":[],"items":[{"type":"featuredtopics","heading":"Featured Topics","topics":[{"name":"FGM","link":"https://www.thestar.com/news/fgm.html"},{"name":"Missing Women","link":"https://www.thestar.com/news/murdered-missing-indigenous-women.html"},{"name":"Donald Trump","link":"https://www.thestar.com/news/donald-trump.html"},{"name":"Book Reviews","link":"https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/reviews.html"},{"name":"Weather Blog","link":"https://www.thestar.com/news/starweather.html"},{"name":"Fresh Air Fund","link":"https://www.thestar.com/initiatives/fresh_air_fund.html"},{"name":"Trust Project","link":"https://www.thestar.com/trust.html"}]}]}],["breakingnews:",{"breakingnews":{}}]]
//-->